Salamanca Arts Centre presents ...

A solo guitar recital by David Keating.

Thursday 2nd June
7:30pm - 9pm
Peacock Theatre
Salamanca Arts Centre
[ Doors open at 7pm ]

This concert program will include:

J.S Bach (1685-1750)
Four Movements from Suite, BWV 997
Prelude, Sarabande, Gigue, Double

Joe Bugden (1961-)
Three Easy Pieces for Solo Guitar
1. As a Dog returns to its Vomit, so is a Fool Destined to Repeat his Folly
2. Caution, Lest you Kill what you Love, and you Become what you Despise
3. And then, again, predictably, the Revolutionary becomes the Dictator

Phillip Houghton (1954-2017)
Ophelia… a haunted sonata

Isaac Albeniz (1860-1909)
Sevilla

~ INTERVAL ~

Roland Dyens (1955-2016)
Saudade No.3 & Felicidade

Mathias Duplessy (1972-)
Cavalcade

Bryan Johanson (1960-)
The Bootleggers Tale

Mark Small
“Please Thank Lyle Mays"

Various Irish tunes & melodies.

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About David Keating:

Irish classical guitarist David Keating presents an intimate and explorative new solo guitar concert. As a new resident of Tasmania he will perform work by Australian composers, whilst also bringing you some classic Bossa Nova songs, a fiery Spanish Sevilla and a couple of Irish Traditional tunes for good measure. Enjoy an eclectic, explorative and exciting evening of untamed and intimate solo classical guitar.

David Keating is a classical guitarist whose eclectic and generous performances have captivated audiences across Tasmania, Ireland and the UK. David first started playing guitar aged five and hasn’t stopped since.

David’s repertoire comes from a love of music itself. His work is a unique and intimate mix of traditional classical guitar music juxtaposed equally with contemporary music genres such as folk, jazz and blues. He possesses a deep love for improvisation and electric guitar techniques, and this passion informs his flexible and conversational performance style.

David is a graduate of the Royal Northern College of Music, Manchester, where he studied with the acclaimed Australian guitarist Craig Ogden, and was awarded a First Class Honours MMus Degree in classical guitar performance. Since 2012, he has been a classical guitar lecturer as the Munster Technology University in Cork, Ireland.

David recently performed Rodrigo’s iconic Concierto de Aranjuez with Cork Opera House Concert Orchestra and has been a featured soloist with Lancashire Chamber Orchestra. He has won many music prizes in Ireland including the John Vallery Memorial Prize in the Irish Freemasons Young Musician of the Year Competition, the CSM Senior Recital Competition (adjudicated by Alan Smale - Former Leader of the RTE National Symphony Orchestra), and the Feis Ceoil Cup and Gold Medal for Classical Guitar Performance.

As a chamber musician, David plays with the Irish Guitar Quartet, Fandango Guitar Duo, and recently toured with the Irish Tenor Finbar Wright. David can currently be found performing with Flamenco dancers and singers at MONA’s FARO Restaurant as part of El Culto de España.

David plays a 2018 Greg Smallman guitar, and gratefully acknowledges support from Music Network Ireland.

Website:http://davidkeatingguitar.com/

Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/davidkeatingguitar/?hl=en

Fandango Duo:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zysvFoMZEcU

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TxZS6ZXSu8E&ab_channel=DavidKeating

Notes about the Music:

J.S Bach (1685 - 1750):
Four Movements from Suite, BWV 997
Prelude, Sarabande, Gigue, Double

In most catalogues of the complete works of Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750), one learns that the composer wrote four suites for the lute, all dating from widely separated time periods, plus miscellaneous other pieces. However, recent scholarship has determined that in fact Bach did not actually write any music for the solo lute. Clive Titmuss, writing in Classical Guitar Canada last year, states that “the apocryphal lute works lie well within the confines of Bach’s established keyboard style,” and that they were probably written for various keyboard instruments, including something called the lute-harpsichord. (The G-minor Suite is an arrangement of the Fifth Suite for Solo Cello by way of a keyboard version.) Titmuss suggests that an unnamed German musicologist probably initiated the misconception sometime after Bach’s death, no qualified lute player challenged him, and the notion stuck. According to Titmuss, the so-called Lute Suites “are not technically possible on the lute without fundamental changes to the text,” a viewpoint essentially upheld by one of the outstanding lutenists of our time, Hopkinson Smith, in the introduction to his published edition of the suites.

None of this should detract in the least from our enjoyment of the music as played on guitar, in which form it is commonly heard today. The Suite BWV 997, composed in the late 1730s, comprises only two of the four dance movements that normally made up the core of a Bach suite (the stately Sarabande and the lively concluding Gigue; absent are the Allemande and Courante). The opening Preludio is also a familiar feature, but the following Fuga is most unusual to be found in a suite. The concluding Double is an elaborately ornamented variation of the preceding Gigue.

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Phillip Houghton (1954 - 2017):
Ophelia…a haunted sonata

The mythic stereotype of the beautiful, lonely maiden who goes mad and kills herself is as old as myth itself. The most famous example in literature is the legend of Ophelia which was established by Shakespeare when he included Queen Gertrude’s description of Ophelia and her death in ‘Hamlet’ (act IV). Another powerful influence on me – and also inspired by Shakespeare’s magnificent text – was the painting ‘Ophelia’ (1852) by Pre-Raphaelite artist John Millais. It shows Ophelia drowning in a river, surrounded by a garland of wildflowers … a strangely calm, otherworldly scene.

Looking beyond the “beautiful” maiden aspect of the legend, I was drawn to the person who was Ophelia and to what she symbolised: the struggle, at an intimate spiritual and psychological level, of what it means to be human. In this light, the music may be seen to be a journey through an emotional / spiritual “landscape” – through the forest of the mind / ocean of the heart.

Ophelia took her own life, after pain – through lack of love and identity – drove her to madness. Strip away the myth and we see not “mad Lady Ophelia” but someone who suffered depression and mental illness – dislocation within, and a dislocation from the world and nature … a tragic figure who led an inauthentic life. I felt compassion and empathy for Ophelia, and this was my starting point … the only point … into the “black light”.

Ophelia gave in to her loss and loneliness … ‘am I but a dream of a shadow?’ she may have cried, clawing at reality. In the music, I have tried to convey Ophelia’s pain and suffering and the sadness of her tragedy … where it all cries out as a yearning for healing and peace. It is also about death … of Ophelia, slowly sinking into the cold palm of the unknown.

The work requires the 6th string turned to Eb and the 5th to G. I did this as it seemed to evoke sonorities and colours – a sweet dissonance – in the sound of the guitar which I felt related to the emotion of Millais’ painting and Ophelia’s plight. The work is dedicated to composer Lili Boulanger (1893 – 1918 … am thinking, especially, of the beautiful last movement of her Theme et Variations for piano) and poet Federico Garcia Lorca (1898 – 1936). Both great artists who pursued what I’ll call the “black light” (duende) … the journey into the depths of the human psyche.

~ Phillip Houghton
Sydney, Dec 12th 2004

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Isaac Albeniz (1860 - 1909):
Sevilla

Issac Albeniz was a child prodigy on the piano giving public performances at the age of four and entering Madrid conservatory at the age of nine. Although his compositions celebrated most of the regions of his country, his heart always seemed to return to the south of Spain, to Andalusia-the land of flamenco and gypsies, white-washed villages, snow-capped mountains, and strong sweet wine. The Sevilla region in Spain was a centre point for flamenco. The sevillanas is a festive local dance and song, probably related to the Castilian seguidilias, that has come to be associated with Seville’s spring fair, celebrated annually two weeks after Easter

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Roland Dyens (1955 - 2016):
Saudade No.3 & Felicidade

Roland Dyens was a French classical guitarist, composer and arranger well-known for his superb ability to improvise. His music is folk and jazz influenced and very popular amongst guitarists. The Brazilian Portuguese word saudade means “a melancholic longing about something that's missing” and has been a driving force for many songs and compositions by composers and performers of all genres. Dyens’ Saudade No. 3 consists of three movements – Rituel, Danse and Fête et Final. Felicidade is a bossa nova song by Antonio Carlos Jobin, composed in 1958 for the French film Orfeu Negro (Black Orpheus).

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Mathias Duplessy (1972 -):
Cavalcade

MATHIAS DUPLESSY is a French composer and guitarist born in Paris in 1972. He studied composition in Paris and flamenco in Grenada, Spain. Well known as a film music composer (both fiction and documentary), he is a sought-after accompanist. Duplessy performs regularly on the international jazz and world music scenes. He has produced numerous projects with traditional musicians and plays instruments from around the world (oud, morin khuur, berimbao...). On this album, his Cavalcade [Premiere Recording] is inspired by flamenco (Bulerias rhythm), and by the music of Augustin Barrios and Egberto Gismonti. Duplessy tells us enigmatically “The evocation is a race against the passing time…”.

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Bryan Johanson (1960 - ):
The Bootleggers Tale

The composer’s family immigrated from Ireland and settled in Ashville, North Carolina. The family business was making grain alcohol, which would then be sold to whiskey distillers for casking and aging. The ratification of the 18th Amendment in 1919, made the production or consumption of all forms of alcohol a federal offense. The family business suddenly became highly profitable and highly illegal. Johanson’s grandfather and extended family briefly became bootleggers, moving their operation from state to state. Their tall tales of making and selling illegal whiskey while staying a step or two ahead of the law inspired The Bootleggers Tale.

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Mark Small
“Please Thank Lyle Mays"

The passing of jazz pianist and composer Lyle Mays in February 2020 marked the stilling of one of the most distinctive musical voices of a generation. Lyle was a founding member of the Pat Metheny Group, and his work as a sideman and co-composer with Metheny on the group’s 14 albums represents one of the most successful partnerships in the history of jazz. While this piece is a tribute to Lyle’s contributions, none of his music is quoted. It’s impossible for a solo guitar to capture the grandeur and broad sonic canvas of Lyle’s sophisticated grand piano and synthesizer work. Rather, this is a nod toward some of his characteristic musical gestures and sensibilities.

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Various Irish tunes & melodies.

~ FIN ~

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Salamanca Arts Centre's 2022 Arts Program is supported by the Commonwealth Government's Office of the Arts via the RISE Fund.